Dr Emily MacLeod
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emilymacleod.bsky.social
Dr Emily MacLeod
@emilymacleod.bsky.social
I research why people do/not become teachers, especially in science, and how we can make education equitable. Working at McGill and UCL.
Importantly, this paper demonstrates that the reasons why young people do not pursue teaching are not the same reasons why people leave the profession

🚫 i.e., we should not always group teacher recruitment and retention together, they are not caused by the same issues (10/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
This raises questions about how we can raise the status and safety of teaching for all... (9/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
The framework shows that the reasons why people want to become teachers go beyond their individual desires (e.g., wanting to work with children), and include how potential teachers see themselves, and are seen by others, in relation to teaching (8/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
In this framework I propose that status and safety are relative to a person's background and/or the social and cultural inequities that they experience.

e.g. teaching is not 'low in status' for everyone, at all times ‼️(7/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Using these analyses I propose a new framework of status and safety with which to examine why some people become teachers, whilst others do not:

*teacher-makers and teacher-breakers* (6/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Those who chose to pursue teaching by age 22 maintained or returned to teaching as both high in status and safety

Those who dropped their teaching aspirations lost the relative status and/or safety of teaching (5/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I found that teaching was seen as a profession which afforded both respect (status) and minimal risk (safety) by all aspirant teachers in this study

But that these perceptions shifted over time - status and status can be lost and gained (4/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
In the paper I present analyses of qualitative data from interviews tracking aspirant teachers in England over 11 years 👶➡️🧑 (3/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
This paper is part of a special issue focusing on teacher shortages and ways forward for policy, research and practice in teacher supply

Thanks to Beng Huat See, Gemma Moss, Robert Klassen, Mark Ledger, Sophie Thompson-Lee & Rebecca Snell for the opportunity (2/11)
September 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Finally, we consider what this means for increasing and diversifying teacher recruitment in the context of dire, and patterned, teacher shortages (4/4)
August 24, 2025 at 10:24 AM
And that teaching is a common back-up, or second-choice career aspiration, but that many individuals who report an earlier interest in teaching do not go on to become teachers (3/4)
August 24, 2025 at 10:24 AM
We find that girls and young women, as well as young people who identified as White, were significantly more likely to be open to teaching than their peers (2/4)
August 24, 2025 at 10:23 AM